How to Make Snowflakes in Fireworks
If you want to add a seasonal touch to your website during the winter holidays, why not add a falling snowflake? You can add a snowflake with a transparent background or animate the snowflake falling. Fireworks' web graphic features make it the perfect tool for digital snowflakes.
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Instructions
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1
Create a new Fireworks document. Keep it square (200 to 300 pixels), and the file resolution at 72 ppi (any higher resolution will be wasted on the web and needlessly consume bandwidth). Use a transparent background.
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2
Add horizontal and vertical guides through the center point of your document to align your branches ("Rulers" in the View menu). Drag another guide to a point halfway between the center line and left image margin.
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3
Make a rectangular selection with the marquee tool from the center point to the top of the rightmost guide. Choose the polygon tool by holding down the "Option/Alt" key to create a diagonal from the bottom left corner to the top right corner of the selection. Finish drawing a selection outside the right and bottom sides of the original rectangle. The polygon will trim the finished selection into a triangle.
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4
Cut irregular shapes from the triangle's interior and edges using any Fireworks selection tool. It's your flake so make the triangle into any shape you want. Fill with the paint bucket tool (experiment with different gradient fills to create a reflective effect).
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5
Drag your snowflake layer to the Layers palette "New Bitmap Layer" icon. Choose "Numeric Transform" from the Modify menu and rotate the new layer 30 degrees. Realign the bottom tip with the document center point. Duplicate and rotate until you have rotated copies all the way around the center.
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6
Flatten your snowflake ("Flatten Layers" in the Modify menu). Save the file. Open the Optimize palette and set the format to GIF with "Alpha Transparency." Export the file in GIF format.
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Tips & Warnings
To animate your snowflake use the Canvas Size dialogue to increase the document height. Add frames using the frames palette and then select each frame to move your snowflake from the top to the bottom.
